Starring Bezzie, her Mad Scientist husband and their kids Chunky, Moochie, and Baby Sister in a whirlwind "adventure" involving excitement, loss, separation, a series of financially draining transnational moves, hitting rock bottom, climbing up again, and a slight change of plans. Oh, and there will be some knitting involved too!

Monday, May 07, 2007

New Beginning and A Near Finish

Not much was accomplished on Bad Penny this weekend.

I'm still working on the bottom rib:

Don't worry, when I finish it I will give you a modeled picture. I'm getting as sick of these progress-on-the-bed-shots as much as you are.

I think I messed up the eyelets on the bottom ribbing though.

The pattern doesn't say whether or not you continue the 1X1 rib when you get to the part with the eyelets. It merely says to "follow eyelet lace chart." So I did. But I didn't keep with the 1X1 ribbing when I did (the chart doesn't say to).

I don't think it's going to look good all stretched out on my waist. I can't tell from the picture with the pattern whether or not she kept with the 1X1 rib or not. Nope, wait, I lied. When you PRINT OUT the picture, you can't tell if she stuck with the 1X1 rib. If you go back to the pattern online, yeah, she did stick with the 1X1 rib.

So I guess tonight will involve frogging the past seven rows and starting the eyelet rows all over again except keeping with the 1X1 rib.

This weekend also saw us dropping gobs of money in anticipation of Dr. Mad Scientist's mom and his sister's kid visiting over Memorial Day weekend.

On Saturday we bit the bullet and bought a "couch" for the living room. Since we moved here in February, we have been sitting on those nylon camping/lawn chairs to watch TV as the couch we moved from Texas (and Michigan) didn't fit through the doors.

We decided to buy a futon.

But it WILL fit in the front door and it will come in handy for he and I to sleep on while Mother In Law (I'll have to come up with a better blog nickname for her) and Niece (again, I need a good name for her too) can share and sleep in our bed while visiting.

And of course because MIL and Niece will be in our bed, I had to go out and buy new bedding. Why? Because Dr. Mad Scientist and I have been happily married for nearly eight years. I credit this largely in part to the fact we do NOT share covers. We both have our own twin-size bedding that we curl up with each night. No hogging of the covers creating marital problems here!

Now if my mother was coming to visit, you can bet she'd be sleeping in our ghetto-rific bed.

But because it's not my mother, I had to go out and buy a pair of nice pillows ($9.99 for two! My pillow is one that my mother stole from the US Army upon discharge I believe and is older than I am. Can't really let MIL sleep on that can i?) and a queen size comforter ($28.00).

I did save $20 resisting the FutonMan's urgent insisting that I upgrade to the next best mattress. Both Dr. Mad Scientist and I sat on the one that cost $20 more and couldn't tell the difference.

I came really close to caving in just to shut him up, but then I remembered for the past three months I've been sitting on FREAKING LAWN CHAIRS. Any "substandard" futon mattress is going to feel like heaven on my ass!

I also calculated that this weekend was the tenth time I had done laundry in the great state of New Jersey.

How do I know?

By counting hats of course!

Each week while I'm washing my laundry at the laundromat I chuck out a Hat for Alex. My goal is to stuff the little box I've got in the back of my closet collecting these hats as full as I can get it before I send it off to Pam.

I love making these little things. I can do them fast and I can futz around with new techniques. I've been doing some colorwork (that blue and white checker-band one is this past Saturday's hat) and loving it. I never thought I'd like or be good at colorwork, but when you knit it in the round--it's a breeze! I think my problem is that I always tried doing colorwork in the flat. Yuck!

Alright finally you're probably all wondering how work went today huh?

It went OK. It's a job. I must say that I do HATE starting jobs. I hate having to get to know the ropes all over again. In the legal field there are so many things to take into account too. I mean I know how to do everything I'm expected to do--it's just that I don't know how they like to do it.

Plus it's going to take some serious adjustment getting used to not having to do everything myself. It's such a large firm! I'm used to handling everything about a firm if you could even call working for The Man (a virtual sole-practioner) working for a "firm" (her partners basically moved out of the office and 20 miles away from her...but remained her partners and kept the firm name).

The people there seem nice enough. The girls I work right next to don't seem particularly friendly which at first seemed odd. Most people I start jobs with are very friendly and outgoing.

However these poor women are being constantly micromanaged by Attorney Bigmahoff. He's like The Man on crack. I didn't think it could get worse than The Man, but it can! I feel for those poor girls, so I can cut them some slack for not being more friendly.

I remember what it felt to have your sense of happiness and will to thrive crushed constantly day after day. Poor things!

Hopefully once I get to the point where I can print stuff out, get some guidance on where the supplies are kept, and my keycard so I can go to the bathroom and not have to wait for someone to unlock the door to let me back into the office I'll be more comfortable!

yeah, i hear ya. I like to work early, and with the flex schedule my company allows, i can. But I don't have a key and the alarm code yet (few more weeks) so once in a while i sit in my car for up to 20 minutes til someone else shows up. minor pain. i also have to be way careful because of all the repetitive motion. and then the knitting! man.

Dude, I've been sleeping (for a little over a year) on a futon I paid $100 for at WalMart. Well, you've seen it. The first time I ever slept on it, I thought, "Damn, this thing is really uncomfortable." But, I get a full-night of sleep on it. In your face fancy beds! Haha!

I hate starting jobs, too. You get all excited that you got hired and then you have to think about actually working. Bah!

oooohhhhh...... I haven't started a new job in 22 years (well, I had a bunch of jobs at the library, but they were all with the same people). I don't even want to think about my first day at my new job!

Anyway -- the futon sounds like a great improvement over the lawn chairs -- especially if you think about you and the hubbo sleeping in them while your MIL sleeps in your bed! Yay, futon!

Why is it we get things when MIL's come over!! I put curtains up for the first time (years ago in our first house) 3 yrs after living there (house in the woods, no close neighbors, only the deer saw anything ;)! Well enjoy your futon!! Can't wait to see your hats!

It sounds like the Man has really sucked the life out of them. We NJ folk are a friendly bunch for the most part. I'm sure it will get much better soon. You've got a great personality and sense of humor so before you know it - work buds.

Futon- great purchase! I need a new one. It broke and so I need a new frame.

Seperate covers - Mom and Dad started doing that a couple years ago - brilliant move!

I hope the job gets more exciting! Maybe the other girls are just busy. It always seems like new people start here on a day when I am SWAMPED and then I feel like I've been the bitch in the office next door to them, when I really just haven't had time to be anything but frazzled. Maybe that's the case.

Glad to hear it went ok, but do you really have to wait for someone to let you into the loos?! Yay to the futon, it should feel heavenly on yer butt! And yay to seperte bedding, saved this marriage too!Looking forward to seeing the Bad Penny.

I heard about the two-blankets-for two-people in one bed concept on the knitty board (it was like a huge revelation to me that you could *do* that), so I went out and bought two twin comforters for my bed. It is so much nicer. Now I usually just share the bed with Sally - but even when her rather large furry butt hogs the covers, I can pull the other one onto myself. I'm a much happier sleeper now!